When did you start potty-training your child?

[NY_MOM]

DD now 5 was trained when she was 33 months. One day we just told her it was time, we put on the panties she had exactly one pee-pee accident and that was it. The following day she just hung out on the potty and that was that. She was trained from then on both #1 and #2, and never had an accident at night. I've heard potty training nightmares and thank God that DD was just ready, willing and able. Good Luck to all you potty training moms out there!!!

 

[disneybound2010]

We are in the process of training our DS right now. Right before his 2nd birthday,he showed signs of wanting to train, so I rushed out and bought a potty chair and started working with him. It only lasted for a few weeks and he was no longer interested. Now, at almost 2 1/2, he started running up to me and grabbing me to pull me to the potty. If he has an accident, he takes the diaper off, puts it in the trash and runs to the potty to finish. This has all been of his own doing. After the first round, I was adamant that we would in no way push him and he would show us when he was ready. We are still not thatere 100% but he is really getting the hang of it. I'm planning to buy him his first "big boy underwear" on the next trip to the store now that we are down to a small accident or two a day.

Let your little one show you when they are ready. Before then, the only one being trained is you LOL

 

[sk!mom]

In my experience, if you wait until they are ready, there's no training to it.

DD12 was 2 and 3 months. I waited for her to ask for underwear. My mom found this to be an unconventional approach and I assured her that if DD turned 3 without showing an interest then I would actively pursue it. When DD began to show an interest, I explained that panties were for big girls, etc... The only thing we did then was take her to the bathroom frequently for about a week- until we were confident that she would ask. She was out of diapers in 2 or 3 days with only one accident and never had another.

We never looked back. She continued to wear a diaper at night until 3.

I much prefer this approach over starting young and dealing with it for months. If DD had not been using the potty consistently within a week, I would have dropped it for several months.

Oh and I didn't use a potty either. Regular toilet from day one for us. We really approached it as a "no big deal - Doesn't matter to mom and dad if you do or not, you can wear diapers if you'd rather thing." I probably had this attitude since some of the worst potty issues I have ever seen were among those who were pushed to train too young and then it became a power struggle.

 

[inloveindisney]

I put 18 months or younger, but I don't know if I really qualify to that category. My daughter sees others pottying at the sitters house so we brought the potty into the bathroom so she could start getting used to seeing it. She asks to go a lot and just goes in an "practices". Sometimes she sits down fully clothed and is hapy with that, other times she takes off everything and even uses toilet paper when she's "done". She's not actually doing anything, just sitting there. So, we've sort of started, but we're definitely not pushing it. I think she'll pick it up from the others at the babysitter. there are three girlls there all the same age as her.

 

[ChrisandDon'sMommy]

3! He knew when he was ready to go and I didn't fight it!

Now with my second son, I think it'll be sooner.

 

[jellybeans0607]

I never "trained" any of my children. When they are taht young they aren't trained you are. I know someone said that kids used to potty train so much earlier, I don't think thats necessarily true. It was more the parenst knew when they had to egt the kid to the potty. Not too many 18mo can walk themselves to the bathroom, use it, wipe and flush. They still need tons of help at that age, to me that isn't trained.

So with our children they just did it when they were ready. We talked about it and they understood what was expected of them. Then each of them one day just did it on their own. they were all around 3. We have never had an accident. Because they were ready. My brother will tell you that his daughter is trained at 22 months. She has an accident about every other day and wears a pull up to bed. The girl is certainly not trained.

 

[thepeach80]

My 5yo was really the only one I 'trained'. Evan just watched AJ enough that he just started doing it on his own at 2.5yo and never went back. It was great. Ilana is 23 mos and about 95% there, mostly on her own doing. She's had a potty for a while to get her used to it and we let her sit when she wants. She uses it all the time now and tells us when she needs to go when we're out in public etc. If she comes to you and points to her diaper before she needs to go, get her a potty and let her try it!

 

[Mickeyherewecome123]

Dont push the issue. We tried potty training our boys at 2 1/2 and they werent ready. And then one day one of my sons got up in the morning and said mom, I dont want to wear diapers anymore, can I have underpants. And that was the last time we ever bought diapers again. Seriously, both of my twin boys were potty trained in the SAME day. It was sooo simple.

 

[GraysMom]

I bought a little potty for DS when he turned 2. It mainly sat in the bathroom and collected dust (we also tried putting it in the family room and his bedroom) except for the once or twice a month I could convince him to sit on it while I read him a stack of books.

The week before we went to Disney, he announced he wanted to wear big boy undies, so I told him that meant he had to pee and poop in the potty all the time. His answer-"OK" ! Now, I wasn't crazy enough to put him in undies at Disney, but I told him we'd look for undies while we were there (that was an exercise in futility ) and try using the potty when we got home. To our surprise, he asked to use the toilet at OKW several times each day, even though it made a major flushing sound.

When we got home, we got him a potty seat that fits on top of the regular toilet seat since his little potty chair was not comfortable to sit on. I put him in undies w/a pull-up over the top for about a week and after that he was completely trained during the day (at 2y 3m) and night trained by 2y 5m. I would say he probably had around 7 or 8 accidents total before he was totally trained. I really think since it was his idea when to start, it went easier than I could ever have imagined. Good luck!

 

[ilovejack02]

My lil one turned 3 in aug and by Nov i was DONE lol.

It was really cold and I just didnt let him wear pants, only shirt. He kept sayin Mommy Im cold... I said well learn to use the big boy potty and you can have pants. It took about 24 hours and after one clean up session .. that he had to help with, we were done. I dont know how I did it so fast, but def. glad it worked out so easy. I wish i had done it sooner!

 

[paigeandmorgansmom]

Both of my daughters trained themselves at around 2.5. I never forced the issue or had them sit on the potty and try to go. I just waited till they said they wanted to go potty. Both wore big girl panties that very day and we never looked back. Both maybe had 1 or 2 accidents that first week, but not major issues or problems. Both were 3 before they were trained to have a bowel movement in the potty, they would put there pull-up on themselves and go. Then come to me to change it. My daughters had bowel problems at a young age, and our ped told me not to push so i never did. Potty training was easy in our house. My sister in law said her daughter was potty trained at 18 months, but really she was the one trained. It wasn't until her daughter was almost 4 that she stopped having accidents all the time.

Don't rush your child, they will know when they want to go. All the pleading and pushing never works.

 

[ALittleDisneyFan]

My DD is 26 months and is now pt'ing - she was also pooping 4x a day and those diapers were bringing me to tears. At first I bought her a potty which she loathed... and then a friend suggested a potty seat for the big potty - that did the trick. Now she is only pooping once a day and I am free of diapers except at night. We are only a week into this with the big seat, so trying to get her to tell me she has to "t-t" is the next thing.. she has great communication skills just doesn't tell me. although she does hold it until I take her in.

 

[crl]

My DD was fully trained at 19 months and survived an entire Disney trip at 21 months using the potty with no accidents. My DS on the other hand is 2.5 and is only now ready for me to start with him. If there is an interest, go with it since it could make things easier down the road.

 

[ERMama]

DS1, didnt start training him until 3.5 yo. He was delayed and it would useless to start earlier. He trained quickly.
DS2 starting training on his own and within about a month or so he was totally trained by 2.5yo. But then at 3yo his baby sis came home and he started having night accidents which we are still dealing with 6 months later. Sigh.

DD, she is almost 15 months and I havent even thought of starting with her yet.

I dont think theres a wrong time to start introducing them to the toilet. I do think its wrong to EXPECT them and get frustrated and angry with them for not being trained by the age of 2.

 

[puffkin]

My son showed an interest around 2 years old. He has been doing #2 on there pretty consistently since then. He was pretty predictable about when he was about to go, so we would just grab him and throw him on the potty when he gave the signs. About 28 months he started telling us when he needed to do #2.

We use a private daycare and all the kids are the same age (with 2 weeks of each other). At the start of the summer she started letting them run around without pants (just underwear) on. Brady pretty consistently used the potty then (and at home) but he wouldn't really tell us. He would just go over when he needed to and go himself. But if we sat him on or if we were out of the house he wouldn't tell us and wouldn't make himself go.

I was holding off on making the final big push until we returned from our Disney trip. The DAY we left he decided he wasn't going to wear diapers anymore. We used Pull Ups (since we were in Disney) and he had no confusion with them. He treated them just like underwear and wouldn't go with him. We had no accidents at all during the day, and only a few at night (we used a diaper then). Since we have been home, he is completely day trained and about 75% night trained. We use underwear at home/daycare and pull ups when we are out and he doesn't have any issues. Still in a diaper at night, but I think he is starting to not like it. He was 1 week shy of 2 years 7 months. It was SO easy. I don't know what it was, but it just clicked for him.

Funny thing is, the week we were away, the other little boy at daycare fully day trained as well. They are 4 days apart in age. The two girls though are doing HORRIBLY and no where close to being trained. At least in our small population, the girls are proving to be much harder than the boys and they are all the same age

 

[Jenvenza]

Thanks for all the replies! I think I am going to wait until after Christmas and if she is still showing interest, we will start training. I am a pretty easy-going person, so I would never be frustrated with her if she wasnt fully trained by 2. I think it can be done though, so that is what I am aiming for.

 

[MommyBryn]

Well, my DD1 got it really early (mostly by 11-12 months) because we practice elimination communication- even though we do it VERY casually and only "part-time", it works so well. We even started earlier with DD2 and she goes on the potty whenever we sit her on it (she's 5 months. She still wears cloth dipes all day/night but I try to let her go diaper free when I can, and those are the times I "potty" her.

That said, I TOTALLY agree with not pushing the potty issue. That's what EC is about, too (only instead of teaching children to go from diapers to potty, it's more about helping them do what is natural for them...hard to explain, but if you google EC you'll get the idea).

 

[Karlzmom]

I know they used to push for potty training much earlier but I think all that did was to confuse the child and frustrate the parents. My ex son-in-law (when he began getting visitation rights again) asked us when she was 16 months old if our granddaughter was potty trained yet. When we said no, he was shocked and stated that he was completely potty trained at 16 months. Well, so what? Times have changed.

QUOTE]

I think what he meant to say was his mom was potty-trained when he was 16months old....seriously, at that age its more about mom helicoptering and swooping in when she sees the "signals" than it is about the child physically controlling their output. Add in the child's inability to manage the dress/undress...just not worth it, IMHO.

 

[vcr]

My first daughter was trained, day and night at 20 months, DS was 3 for daytime and wet the bed at night until he was 8, and my youngest DD was fully trained at 22 months. For me girls were much easier. I always kept a potty in the same room that they were in (out of sight out of mind after all) and my girls liked to be naked all the time, so they would just run to the potty when they had to go, without having to ask to be taken. My friends DD is almost 3 and they were having no luck until I told them to leave her naked. She was daytime trained in 3 weeks. Some kids are ready earlier and it won't hurt to try.

 

[Relish]

Ds was done by 18 mo during the day. He still uses a nighttime diaper but that's fine by me. When he starts waking up dry then I'll know he's done.

Yes, he still needed help getting dressed/undressed at 18 mo but I didn't see that as a reason not to let him use the potty when he wanted. I mean, seriously, who wants to prolong changing dirty diapers?